Do you ever feel like youâ€™re stuck in a rut in your Sims 2 playing? Do you find yourself giving each of your CAS sims the same aspiration and personality? Well hereâ€™s a challenge that will break you out of it! Discuss your strategies and ask for help here!

The Challenge

The design of The Prosperity Challenge is to create a well-run, prosperous neighborhood. The difference comes in with the set-up. From the very beginning, you must stretch your abilities by creating sims from the roll of a dice.

The Prosperity Challenge was created as a joint effort by Kivrin5511 and Straberiwine74. You will notice that the challenge itself is posted by both of us, so if youâ€™d like to rate beneficial, please rate both.

We have also set up a Yahoo Group for easier discussion. If youâ€™re interested in trying it and would like to talk to other players, please visit http://games.groups.yahoo.com/group...rity_challenge/ If you do not already have a Yahoo ID, it will ask you to create one, but the process is painless.

Please feel free to ask any questions, either in this thread or on the Yahoo board. Straberiwine and I have done our best to insure that all major issues are covered up front, but there is bound to be something we forgot. Remember, if you have the question, chances are someone else does too and is too afraid to ask.

Set-Up:
To begin, create a new, empty neighborhood and name it whatever you wish. It is suggested you place at least one community lot in the neighborhood. You are welcome to design your own, move one from another neighborhood, or download one from the exchange.

Roll the dice to determine how many families you start off with. If you roll 1, roll again. You must start with at least two families.

For each family, roll the dice again to determine how many sims in the household. Note that 1 is no longer roll again. If you roll 1, it will be a single sim household.

For each sim, you will roll to determine their age, sex, aspiration, and personality. Their appearance is completely up to you and you are welcome to use custom clothing, hair, skin tone, etc.

For Personality, you must make two separate rolls in order to get a full 12 zodiac sign choices. The first roll will determine the â€śsetâ€ť, the second the sign. You may not redistribute personality points within the sign. You must take it as it comes up automatically.

If you are unlucky enough to get all Elder Sims, you may start the determination rolls over. Although you may play this arrangement and adopt children to keep the challenge running, we realize how unfair this unlikely situation would be and make concessions for it.

Note that it is very possible that you will end up with a family without an adult. If there is a teen or elder, you must play the family as it is rolled using the â€śplaceholder simâ€ť as explained below. If all sims in the household are toddlers or children, start the family determination rolls over.

Placeholder Sim:
A Placeholder is an adult created simply to load the family. Gender, personality, and aspiration do not matter because he/she wonâ€™t be around long. I do suggest, however, that you give him/her clothing you like as the game has a tendency to assign that clothing to the children when they age.

You may either move out or kill the placeholder. For this one purpose, boolprop is acceptable to institute their death. If you chose to kill them but do not want to use boolprop, you may immediately lock them in a room or a ladder-less pool. Make sure the other sims have no access to the dying placeholder. The benefit to killing them is that the familyâ€™s children will now qualify for the Orphan Assistance Grant. The downfall is that it could send members of the household into aspiration failure, for which you will lose points (this is even more likely to happen if you donâ€™t use boolprop as the sims have more time to get the fear). If you move them out (using the â€śfind own placeâ€ť option in the newspaper or computer), you may NOT put them back into the neighborhood. Delete them from your sim bin.

Placeholders may not effect the lives of the other sims in any way. For the few hours they are alive before moving out or dying, they may NOT teach toddler skills, help with homework, etc. Unless by accident of autonomous action, they may not speak to the other family members at all. Keep them busy while they wait for the newspaper by commanding them to â€śread a bookâ€ť, â€śrelax on bedâ€ť, etc.

All members of a family must be related to each other. There can be no roommates in the initial families, although youâ€™re welcome to move in roommates once play starts.

Once your families are determined, place their names on a list in the order they were created. You will play their houses in this order.

Families may move into any home or size lot you choose. They may live in Maxis-made houses, houses downloaded from the exchange, or houses you design yourself. They may be moved around throughout the game if they outgrow their current lodging, however they are encouraged to remain and expand, so there are bonuses set up to that purpose.

When first setting up the neighborhood, before playing the first family, move each family into their house/lot and install them a phone. If youâ€™re moving them onto an empty lot, you are welcome to give them only an end table and a phone, then begin building their house when you get to their family in the play schedule. By setting them up in this fashion, you will ensure that even the first family on the schedule can visit with and call the other playable sims. If you have a placeholder sim, you are allowed to play the family before the official start of the game only long enough to move the adult out or kill them via boolprop. If you choose to kill them by locking them in a room it will take longer than a few hours, so you must wait until their turn on the playlist.

The Prosperity Challenge is designed to resemble the Family Dynamics Challenge created by Straberiwine74. The goal is to have a prosperous neighborhood in which the families age at a similar rate.
You must play each family for the same amount of time, maximum of 7 sim days. The amount of time is up to you. Due to time constraints or attention span, you may decide that 3 or 4 days are easier. Whatever you decide, you must play each family for that length. When you return to #1 on your playlist, you may change the time amount.

When a child ages into a teen, you must roll a 6-sided dice to choose their aspiration.

There are no cheats allowed. You may not use boolprop except in the areas specified in these rules. No money cheats. No hacked items that affect mood or game play. You are, however, allowed to use any custom clothing, skins, hair, etc. You may use fixes or move_objects to correct bugs. The Greek House Level 6 Fix is acceptable. Rule of thumb: if the fix/hack is an item likely to be included in Maxisâ€™ next patch, you may use it.

From the moment you start the challenge, you are not allowed to add new CAS sims to the neighborhood. The families must progress through natural birth, death, move-in, or marriage. If a sim moves out, their household is added to the bottom of the playlist. If all sims die, leaving a house empty, scratch that name off the list. If a family simply changes houses, they may keep their normal space in the playlist.

With the exception of a placeholder sim as mentioned in the set-up section, you are NOT allowed to intentionally kill a sim. You may not lock them in a room or take away a pool ladder. All deaths must be either natural or a true accident.

Challenge ends with the first 5th generation death or with the death of the last descendant of the original families created in CAS.
Edited thanks to a heads up by BrendaLynne1872: All CAS sims are first generation, regardless of what family members they have when they begin. A second generation sim MUST be born into the game, even if his sister is first generation due to the original roll of the dice.

You are welcome to move in a townie or NPC, but to prevent the unscrupulous from doing this just to get their money, the townie/NPC must stay in the house until their next age transition unless they are moving out with an original family member. (example: The daughter in a family marries a townie while still living with her parents, then he and she move out to start their own family.)

You may not use the â€ścombine householdâ€ť feature to add families together. They must move in through traditional methods (move-in or marriage). The one exception to this is moving a college graduate back into his/her parentâ€™s house. However, there is a glitch that adds $20,000 to the parentâ€™s house when the graduate returns, then gives them an additional $20,000 when they move out. For that reason, a graduate who chooses to return to his/her parentâ€™s house must remain there for at least 7 sim days before finding their own place.

Your sims may marry/join with any sims in the game, including sims from other households, Townies, NPC, campus townies or NPCs. They must be moved in through traditional methods: marriage or move-in. The only exception to this is if the glitch occurs in which you are unable to move in a campus NPC. Boolprop or a fix to correct this are acceptable.

When marriage occurs, it is not against the rules to have the man take on the womanâ€™s last name, however there is a bonus if all marriages are â€śtraditionalâ€ť. In the case of same sex joining, either last name may be taken.

You must take all career chance cards. If you choose to â€śignoreâ€ť, you will lose one score point each time. These cards represent situations that could potentially come up in the job and there would not be an option to ignore in real life.
Game Play Continued:
You are welcome and encouraged to send your teen sims to college, but there are rules that apply to them as well:

The college graduates must be re-added to the neighborhood within 7 sim days of leaving or after playing their family in the neighborhood without them once, whichever is greater. For example: If Bobby Smith is sent to college on the second day of his familyâ€™s 7-day play schedule, you may play his family again once more before returning him. Therefore he has actually been gone 12 days, but you are not breaking any rules. You are also welcome to return him BEFORE their next play cycle, therefore having him gone only 5 days. You are also welcome to play the University phase through and re-add them immediately, therefore having no time pass for the rest of the family.

---- Suggestions for University play:
- Put University on the schedule just like you would a new household and play them to graduation.
- If you want time to pass for the rest of the college sim's family as if he were away, you can put University on the schedule in one place and play 2 years (4 semesters), half their college life.
- Similarly, you may add University in two places on your list and play each time for 1 college year (2 semesters). This keeps the time frame of the University play schedule more similar to the time frame of your neighborhood play.
- Finally, you can choose not to add it to the schedule and simply play University when you feel like it, keeping in mind the rule that the sims may not be away from the neighborhood more than 7 days or one rotation.

Townie teens can be sent to college with your playable sims ONLY if their relationship is at Best Friend. Townie teens or campus townies that have been moved in or pledged into a Greek house may remain in the sim bin after graduation. Sims who originated in the neighborhood may NOT remain in the sim bin. They MUST be returned to the neighborhood after graduation. Townies/NPCs who became playable during University may be added to the neighborhood in their own homes if you choose. However, they must be added to the playlist. They cannot be installed in the neighborhood simply to retain the friendship.

When you are given the option to change aspiration at the end of Sophomore year, you have a choice. If you would like to retain the aspiration chosen when they became a teen, you may click "no". If you click "yes" to change it, you must roll a dice and use the coordinating numbers above. You must take the aspiration rolled if you choose "yes".

Young Adults from the neighborhood do not have to live together during college, but please plan accordingly to insure all Young Adults move back to the neighborhood within the required time of leaving.

A newly arriving young adult may be merged into a dorm with another playable young adult. However, if you want to merge the new arrival into an existing private house or Greek House, you must do so through "move-in" or "ask to pledge" (put them in a dorm first, then move them through the accepted means). In the case of a Greek House, it is your choice whether you have the sim already in the Greek House ask the new arrival, thereby putting them through a pledge period in which you are not in control of the younger sim, or if the younger sim calls the Greek House and asks to be pledged in

3 pts per impossible want fulfilled. Impossible wants are defined by their aspiration points being over 30,000. (Note: It is not necessary that the want be in the panel at the time it is reached, so no need to waste a lock. It must, however, coordinate with the aspiration. A Fortune Sim who reaches $100,000 will earn the bonus even if he doesnâ€™t have the want at the moment he earns the last simolean. A Family Sim who earns $100,000 would not earn the bonus because family sims do not receive this impossible want.)

1 pt per platinum grave neighborhood wide.

1 pt if sim has top influence level at the time of death.

1 pt for reaching top of career (max 2 points per sim).

-1 pt for each visit from the Sim Shrink.

-1 pt for each visit from the Social Bunny.

-1 pt for each college drop out.

-1 pt if a sim is fired due to poor work performance (not applicable if due to a chance card).

-1 pt for each ignored chance card.

University Scoring:

1 pt per summa *** laude graduate (4.0 grade point average).

1 pt per â€śBig Sim on Campusâ€ť (12 friends at any point during University. Can be taken in addition to having top influence at time of death).

Bonuses:
10 extra pts if 10 or more impossible wants are filled throughout the course of the challenge (in addition to individual points received)

20 extra pts if 15 or more impossible wants are filled throughout the course of the challenge (in addition to individual points received. Not in addition to bonus for 10.)

5 pts if all sims who go to college pledge into the same Greek House (started by first college-bound sim)

2 pts if 75% of sims who go to college pledge into the same Greek House (Not in addition to bonus for all)

5 pts if all sims who go to college get into Secret Society.

2 pts if 75% of sims who went to college get into Secret Society (Not in addition to bonus for all sims)

30 pts if everyone in the neighborhood over the course of the challenge achieves their lifetime wants (excluding CAS Elders. Not to be taken in addition to the bonuses for less than 5 or 10 misses.)

20 pts if 5 or less sims over the course of the game miss their lifetime wants (excluding CAS Elders. Not to be taken in addition to the bonus for 10 or less.)

10 pts if 10 or less sims over the course of the game miss their lifetime wants (excluding CAS Elders)

10 pts for each CAS Elder who achieves an impossible want in their lifetime. (this is nearly impossible because they have little time, cannot get an adult job, and females canâ€™t have kids. Not applicable if the want, such as have 6 grandchildren, is fulfilled after the Elder dies.)

5 pts if all male-female marriages throughout the game take on the maleâ€™s last name.

If each of the original family houses remain inhabited by an heir with the same last name as the family began with...
--- 5 pts if this was achieved while taking only the male last name.
--- 2 pt if this was achieved by a man taking the femaleâ€™s last name.
(These points in addition to the bonus for a house thatâ€™s held a single family for 3 generations or more.)

5 pts if no tombstones are deleted throughout the challenge and ghosts have access to all sims on the lot. (placeholders in the initial set-up may be deleted. Since they couldnâ€™t affect the other sims in life, they need not effect them in death.)

It's a long, long challenge. However, I took some rules here in playing. Made Sims 2 more colorful than before. Last time, all of my sims were family/fortune/pleasure aspirations with Aquarius/Cancer/Virgo/Aries personality, and Mathematics/Economy degrees. Now, the neighborhood's much more colorful, with jealousy, hate and furious clocks appearing as much as love, friendship and romance. (Tip: ALWAYS have a die wen playing The Sims 2)

Yup! I got 3 fantastic families, and even turn-ons, turn-offs, appearance AND name was randomized (hit the randomize button many times, then use the die in specific appearances, then open a book of names and punch in random stuff) I landed with 2 pointy-eared couple, a super-grouchy (but with a dress flair!) male, and a romance girl who failed in her life since she was so grouchy and turn-offed by nearly all males. My favorite is the El-nin pointy-eared, though.

I started this challenge today--it's such a great idea! I rolled for 2 families and I got not a single adult, which at first was a bit upsetting and I was going to reroll but I decided to take the challenge and I'm glad I did because it made for an interesting story line.

The first family is a Grandma with her 5 grandkids: 2 teen boys (Evan and Patrick), 2 that are Child age (a girl, Cara and a boy, Simon), and a Toddler female (Polly). With this one I did cheat a bit, but just to make it more realistic for my story line. I figured if the Grandma was taking in her grandkids after her daughter dies then she'd probably have her own house already and some skills to at her age (right?). So I randomized her skills using Insim and I built a house and then reduced the funds to about 500 simoleons (I only gave them the necessities, so they're still very poor and will have to earn any luxuries).

The second family is a Teen boy (Scott) with his little brother (Dewey, a child) and they are definately much easier to take care of than my 6 person family. I already have plans for Dewey and Polly to get married. Polly has already aged up to a Child and Dewey and her are now best friends. Since Scott rolled Romance, he won't be going to college or getting married--just lots of woohoo! Everyone else is headed for college and to try to achieve their LTWs!

I have six families. I haven't started playing yet but man this should get interesting. Though they are all a good mix and I got a few elders in there. But six. Oh man. But I'll get started on it soon =D

I love this challenge. I'm not scoring, but I'm taking into account pretty much all of the rules.

No cheating- not for money, or maxmotives...which I use kindof waytoomuch.
I used that website to roll 5 families, and I'm on week three.

My first family, a teen boy, died the first week. It was really sad. I created him with a mom, and killed her off right away... but I kept her ghost, and she was a relatively nice ghost... until one night, after he was finally happy after her death, at the top of his career, an a+ student, having a party and he just kissed the girl he liked, she scared him three times in a row and he just died. I was like =O

So that families gone, but the rest are doing ahhhmazing. They're all starting to know each other- they're all bffs, dating, enemies, or casual friends. I love it.

I love that they all age together, so they can have lifetime friends and they don't end up as elders creeping on Marsha or whatever.

I wish I had been taking pictures all the way through up to where I am now... so many crazy things have just naturally happened.

I'm thinking of deleting all my neighborhoods and starting this challenge. I sort of started something like this before I even knew this challenge existed but without the roll of the dice... that reminds me, I need to find dice!

This is the perfect challenge for me because if I don't have a goal like this, I tend to play one family for forever and don't move on to other families at all. I've never had a full neighborhood LOL

I started this yesterday and I love the neighbourhood I created. It looks great. I never took the time to decorate the whole hood. May I post a picture here, or is this not allowed?

I rolled five families and there are a lot of elders. I donÂ´t have one aldut couple. I didnÂ´t use placeholder sims, though, as deleting sims from the sim bin, will corrupt my nice new hood in no time. I just created my elder woman, who was only living with a teen boy, as an adult in CAS and aged her to elder immediately after loading the lot. All the other families didnÂ´t need placeholders as there is at least one adult in each.

And I got my very own Curious brothers. Seriously with one family, I rolled three adult males with the knowledge aspiration. I named the families alphabetically.

I am just starting this challenge tonight and I have been doing fine so far. I created a neighborhood and added some community lots. Then I started building my families. I found a random name generator for the first and last names. I even went ahead and randomized hair/eye color, skin tone and turn ons/offs. I ended up with 5 families:

I am stuck however when it comes to getting rid of the placeholder adult. I don't really want to kill off the placeholder because of aspiration failure (major toddler fear is parent dying) and the ghost then haunting the lot. I can't move out the sim because it won't let you move out without the toddler. I don't understand the boolProp thing and I am still kinda uncertain what would happen if a toddler were just abandoned. What should I do about this? I want to get to playing this challenge, but am stuck on this problem.

I am stuck however when it comes to getting rid of the placeholder adult. I don't really want to kill off the placeholder because of aspiration failure (major toddler fear is parent dying) and the ghost then haunting the lot. I can't move out the sim because it won't let you move out without the toddler. I don't understand the boolProp thing and I am still kinda uncertain what would happen if a toddler were just abandoned. What should I do about this? I want to get to playing this challenge, but am stuck on this problem.

Rules say "If all sims in the household are toddlers or children, start the family determination rolls over."

Because toddlers left alone (by death or abandonment) get taken by the social worker.

I haven't played this challenge yet, but I'm definitely considering it. The biggest thing holding me back is that I'm already playing Strangetown and Pleasantview and it'll take me forever to get through all the required generations. I started playing Sims 2 six months ago, but Vidcund Curious still hasn't died of old age. Even slower going in Pleasantview - Alexander Goth just finished his first semester of Uni.

Well, I rerolled the Rudge family and it is now a single adult female. I rerolled the number of Sims in the family and their types. I didn't want to go back and reroll all of my families because I have already created them.

I just got done with putting phones in all the houses and now am going to start in on my first cycle.

Well, I rerolled the Rudge family and it is now a single adult female. I rerolled the number of Sims in the family and their types. I didn't want to go back and reroll all of my families because I have already created them.

I read it as only that family needing to be re-rolled, anyway.

Quote:

I just got done with putting phones in all the houses and now am going to start in on my first cycle.

I have a question about moving sims out. I have one family with three brothers, who are all adults. Can I move one or two of them out immediately? IÂ´m asking, because that would mean I kind of will get one or two additional households starting with 20K as well and I already rolled 5 different households to begin with.

I decided to start this challenge, despite having a fun neighbood going on. I decided to leave that one alone until the final CAS elder of my Prosperity Neighborhood dies. Seeing as there are 5 this may take a while.

The first family I rolled was the Moarwin Household, consisting of 3 elders and 2 children. I will admit right now to getting fed up with them and maxmotive-ing them in the last few days before the children transitioned. The children seemed to constantly drop motives and never do homework, resulting in Social Worker threats and the one Family elder dropping into aspirational failure. I'm not going to add any points onto the family until the next generation, only take off for any loses. I was pretty close to ending the challenge right there, that family made me so angry.

The rest of the families have been far more entertaining.

The Kipper family was a single teen female named umm ... Kipper? I don't remember her name, but she was a mild mannered family sim after creation. Having no family, on top of having very little life outside school-work-sleep has appearently warped her just a bit. Her aspiration bar is just fine, but she's attention starved. She's the only sim I've had who has used her computer for the purposes of chatting online rather than SSX3. The first walk-by she stopped was a townie I created to wander the neighboor hood, so I could have good genetic options. Kipper-girl immediately rolled the want to be best friends with this stranger. On her first weekend in existance, while fixing up her little car, I had her greet another walk-by, a teenage Orlando Bertino (grew up with one of the children from the first family). She rolled wants to date him, talk about her hobbiess to him, and hug him. It was sad, cute, and creepy all at once. Somehow, despite conversations consisting of her jumping up and down and making large hand motions to chat, and him yawning and raising eyebrows, they had a fairly high relationship, so I let her ask him out. I think that poor young townie walk-by may have just had his fate chosen.

The other family in play is the Luvaurc household. Members include an elderly couple (Romance and Popularity) and their adult son, Vincent. Vincent takes after his lady-lusting father. His LTW is 20 simultaneous loves. I've really enjoying playing them all, especially Vincent who is a sweetheart, and playing a strategy to get these lovers is a blast. I have a die I made (couldn't find any) which I plan to roll every day next round, and if I roll 2 (which almost never comes up) I will have Vincent's parents adopt a child. Other oddities in this family are Camden (Vincent's father) and his strange want obsession with the meaner of the children in the Moarwin family. I can almost understand it, I suppose.. they were the first out of any of the families to meet... but....

It seems I'm deleting my old neighborhood and doing this one. I'll be downloading an empty template and that means no townies. I wont be counting scores or rotating, just using this as a start for my new hood.